


The Howling Woods

by vhoorl



Category: Boyfriend to Death (Visual Novels), This Is Not Romance (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Kidnapping, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-09-30 18:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17229395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vhoorl/pseuds/vhoorl
Summary: It was like the entire universe was having the time of it's life laughing at him. //// Farz loses his way in the woods and encounters some unforeseen consequences.





	1. Birch

**Author's Note:**

> i wll update the tags as the story progresses... should be able to post a new chapter once a week

The woods were dark. Big and imposing, they stood just outside a swath of farmland and field. Anyone who wandered in usually didn't wander back out. Legends about fairies and monsters were popular, but there were real wolves that really existed and really did kill livestock. So, that solved that mystery. Most people in the adjacent towns were too sensible to be out in the woods. Especially alone. Especially at night.

However, most wasn't all. As Farz Murphy so expertly proved while he pushed deeper and deeper into the thicket of trees. Moonlight shone down from the spotty canopy and highlighted the twisted up expression of emotion on his face. He cycled through regret, fear, annoyance, and exhaustion one after the other like a looped animation.

Farz stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the marks on a near-by oak. His marks. Three scratches, to indicate that he had come by here before. He groaned aloud and scrubbed a hand down his face. A second later, he froze as a howl echoed in the distance.

It was like the entire universe was having the time of it's life laughing at him.

He hadn't wanted to be out in the darkest hours of the night with just a bag of money and no shelter or easy way home. His only weapon, a pocket knife, wouldn't help for shit if he ran into a pack of wolves. People went missing and then turned up as bare bones in the dirt. If he stayed out in the forest all night there was a good chance that would be him... if the chill didn't get him first.

If it hadn't been for that stupid tree, he could be home in bed already. It was only dusk when he'd tripped on that root and knocked himself out against a jagged rock. It all happened so fast and before he knew it Farz woke up hours later in pitch black with nobody around. Not even the soft twittering of birds up in the branches. Silence wasn't all bad, in Farz' opinion, but there was something about the woods that made it uneasy. A feeling of eyes, on him from every angle and hiding in each bush.

Farz took a sharp left when a second howl broke through the cold night air. One misstep and now he might be on the menu; it was really just his kind of luck.

Not fully seeing where he went, the short farmhand whipped past dozens of trees. Brow furrowed and heartbeat fast, Farz tore past a slew of rocky breaks in the forest floor. A third, long howl sounded behind him. Closer than the other two. He leapt down from a raised plateau and caught himself against something sturdy.

His breath hadn't caught up at all and it was clear in his short gasps for air. When he looked up, Farz found himself leant against a stone wall. He blinked and backed off from the masonry. The short wall stood affixed to a short bridge. Moss clung to it all over and Farz ran his hand over it, transfixed. The small creek that it lead over gurgled in the deafening quiet of the forest.

Farz took a step onto it with some trepidation. There wasn't supposed to be a river here at all, let alone a bridge.

Something up ahead made a noise. Farz stepped off the bridge as quickly as he'd stepped on and stared at the space in front of him where the sound had come from but, somehow, it was just empty air. Empty air in a spooky forest on a bridge that wasn't supposed to exist.

As he watched the trees on the other side of the creek for movement, Farz slowly eased away from the bridge. It was weird enough but the noise had almost sounded like a very real, very human laugh. He was pretty sure he could see a cave, maybe some decent shelter, past those trees. But that laugh wasn't a good sign. If he had... actually heard it at all. Maybe the hit on the head had done more damage than he'd thought.

If he backtracked now he could just find tree to climb into or a hole in the ground somewhere to hide in until sunrise. Honestly at this point he'd even share with a fox.

It sounded like a good plan until a fourth and particularly loud howl rolled off the trees at his back. It was accompanied by a series of growls in steady approached.

Farz didn't look back. He didn't see the wolves approach, nor the shadowy figure of a man that walked amongst them. Mind made up for him, Farz launched forward into a sprint across the strange bridge toward the outline of the cave.

As he didn't look back, he also didn't see the pack and their bipedal guest stop several feet short of the bridge with their own amount of wariness.

The trees on this end of the woods were thinner, with pale bark and knots on them that stared when you walked past. He breezed through them easily, careful of the roots at his feet.

Farz slowed to a jog and then halted at the mouth of the cave. It looked cramped inside, the entrance too high up to be a quick access point for predators. Which was more than anywhere else had to offer. With labored breaths and grit teeth, the brunet hauled himself up onto the boulders and up into the stone hovel.

No sooner than when his hand had touched the smooth inner wall of the cave, there was that laugh again. When Farz whipped around to try to find the source, he almost slid back down the craggy bunch of rocks. There was a figure. A man. Only a few paces away, leant against a tree with a grin on his face.

"Well don't you look lost," the stranger said. His tone was joking, jovial even. It made the knot of irritation inside Farz twist even tighter. He didn't see what was so funny about this, not in the fucking least.

Somehow, the moonlight seemed brighter here than in the rest of the area. It afforded him a good look at the other guy, but not enough to gauge if he was a threat.

The man couldn't be older than Farz and had a look about him that could have sent anyone on edge. The two-toned hair and the tattered vest, the sharp tooth-strung necklace and the bright amber eyes. He wasn't the kind of person you just ran into on the street. But then again, this was a forest that people went missing in, so it made sense that anyone in it wouldn't be exactly your average civilian.

Wait... that's right, this was still the woods.

Farz glanced briefly down at the leaves he had crunched through himself, all around the guy's feet. Even in the thick silence he hadn't heard the guy approach...

Abruptly, the stranger snorted. "Holy shit I can literally hear your brain, if you keep thinking that loud you're gonna wake everybody up." He shook his head and put his hands in the pockets of equally ripped trousers. They had maybe been fancy slacks at one point. Why was everything so fucking weird?

"What the fuck do you mean everybody, we're in the middle of the woods." Were there more people like this asshole hiding in the forest? Farz slid a hand to the bag on his hip and hovered there; if he had to draw his knife he'd be ready.

"I meant exactly what I said," the man took a step closer and then gestured to the trees, "You don't know what kinda shit lives here, don't be fucking rude." He smirked at Farz as the brunet's hand rested on the satchel anxiously.

"But forget that, what really matters here is that you look hilarious right now." The stranger snickered as he pointed and Farz went red in the face.

"I was running away from a pack of wolves," he stressed, lip curled into a frustrated snarl, "Is that really something you think is hilarious?" Farz glanced at the trees like he expected the pack to come running out of them at any minute.

The guy raised an eyebrow, smirk still very much in place. "Kinda, yeah."

Farz glared at him, very clearly wishing him dead. "Fuck you."

The grin on the other's face only widened. "Hey, nice to meet you, too. I'm Sid. And you are?"

Farz fumed. "Not happy to have company."

"Wow, that's a mouthful. What were your parents even thinking?" Sid tilted his head to the side, clearly delighted as Farz huffed out an annoyed sigh.

"What are you doing out here anyway? Do you... live here, or something?" Farz stared around at the natural landscape in confusion like he expected to spot some kind of shack or cottage. Maybe this guy was why the bridge was here?

"I live where I want," Sid shrugged. The vagrant bent suddenly and Farz tensed until he saw it was just to pick up a discarded twig. Sid tossed it back and forth between his hands. "It really depends."

Farz breathed out through his nose and rolled his eyes. Slowly, the adrenaline from before had ebbed. "Nice, thanks for the cryptic answer." He pressed against the cave wall and his voice trailed off to a grumble. "This conversation I didn't want to have has been truly enlightening." Farz slid down the wall to curl up into a ball at the mouth of the cave.

With his face buried in his knees, he heard Sid give a low whistle. "Aren't you a ray of sunshine."

Farz lifted his head to give a biting retort but instead all that came out was a yell of surprise. Sid was now sat on one of the boulders at the base of the slope. Once again, Farz hadn't heard him move. He raised a brow at the brunet, expression genuinely confused, "What?"

"You were just—" Farz stopped. Sid's expression had morphed back into that same grin. He sighed, angry, and rubbed a hand down his face. "Nevermind."

"Aw, that's no fun," the strange wanderer intoned.

"I don't care what's fun, I'm trapped in a forest talking to a guy who looks like he crawled out of a fucking ditch," Farz bit out with no small amount of acid in his tone. He didn't even know if this asshole knew how to get out of the forest, but he knew it was a bad idea to risk a run in with the wolves again.

"Wow, rude," Sid sneered. He glanced Farz up and down. "You're not the most well dressed guy in the kingdom either, but you don't see me making judgments. You haven't even told me your name! What, were you raised in a barn?"

"Actually, yes," Farz retorted. He glared harshly at Sid and then looked away as his tone became more sheepish. Uncertain. "And... My name's Farz." When he looked back, Sid had an odd expression. The moonlight caught against the strange man's smooth, rather handsome face for a moment and it almost looked like his eyes shone gold.

"And your last name?" The question hung in the air as Sid leaned forward, curious and careful. His whole demeanor had shifted like a cat about to pounce.

The brunet's face scrunched in confusion and he hesitated. "It's... Murphy, why does that mat—"

The very last thing he knew was Sid's grin as it returned to his face and then the world around him went black.

Words drifted by in the other's joking tone as he felt his body go limp.

"Nice to meet you, Farz Murphy. Have a good nap!"


	2. Poison Oak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Farz Murphy might have gotten in over his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the belated update! as it always does, life happened... but future updates should occur as normal.

When Farz came to, he could feel something snug around his wrists. The light in the room was bright and it pressed hard against his eyelids. As his consciousness finally caught up, Farz remembered what had happened at the bridge, the cave...

Sid.

Green eyes shot open and he went tense all over. Farz stared wide-eyed at the ropes around his wrists and shoulders and legs. Enough to secure him to the chair he was on. He tugged at then on instinct and squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light in the room.

Which... it was a room. Not spacious but with four basic walls made of stone. Shelves more chairs and a table, a sink of some kind beside what looked like an oven. This was a kitchen. How was he in a kitchen? Where the fuck was he?

"Oh cool, you're awake." A voice said matter of factly. It was Sid's unmistakeable tone from somewhere behind him. The sound of a glass as it clinked against a stone counter made the brunet's hair stand on end. Farz did his best impression of an owl as he tried to twist around to see what was going on.

"Let me go," Farz demanded. He pulled against the ropes on his wrists again but the thickly wound tethers didn't budge. He growled low in his throat. "Let me go now."

"Wow, no good morning Sid? No thank you? Y'know, I put you in the good chair. It's got padding and everything." He came around the left side of Farz and placed a cup of some kind of orange liquid in his field of vision. "I made you juice and everything, and this is the thanks I get?" His voice rang with amusement.

"Fuck you," Farz ground out. He yanked his shoulders forward to no avail. He eyed the glass of... orange juice? It sat in the air mere inches from his face, like a taunt. "I'm not drinking that." Farz tilted his head back to stare defiantly into Sid's face.

Sid tsked. "Look, if you think I'm trying to poison you you're an idiot. I could have killed you at any point while you were passed out. Why would I wait 'til you were awake?" He rolled his eyes and set the glass down on the table near Farz. "You were wandering around the woods for who knows how long and you've been out for like two hours. I just figured maybe you'd be thirsty when you woke up."

Farz stared resolutely up at Sid and Sid in return stared back at Farz with a raised brow.

"I'm. Not. Drinking. That." He bit out each word and balled his hands into fists against the arms of the chair. Who cared if he was dehydrated and hadn't eaten since yesterday afternoon. There was no way he was taking a drink from his kidnapper.

With a shake of his head and a small smirk, Sid breathed out a sigh, "Whatever, have it your way. I'm going to make myself something to eat."

His captor casually strolled past him back to the stone counter. Farz jerked in his seat hard enough to scrape the chair back an inch and get at least some idea of the full layout from the corner of his eye. There were counters and a set of cabinets with bells hung on the handles. Flasks and a wicker basket full of... fruit and meat, it looked like, sat off to one side.

Sid paid him no mind as he went about his business. He lifted a rather long knife and inspected it. Farz tensed, immediately, but all his strange captor did was bring it down onto a set of strawberries to cut them up.

The scent of fresh berries filled the room and Farz watched the man with a squint. Sid whistled to himself lightly as he chopped, like there was nothing weird going on in the least.

"What do you want," Farz asked in a cold tone of voice.

Sid paused briefly between cuts to glance over his shoulder at Farz. He grinned. "Well look who's asking questions instead of making demands and being a dick. Now that you mention it, I did have a pretty good deal I was gonna offer you." He brushed a few chunks of berry off the knife and then slid over to the sink to rinse off his fingers.

The brunet glared tiredly at the man. It couldn't be more than 3am now. How did this guy manage to have so much energy when everybody in their right mind ought to be asleep?

"What deal," Farz said flatly. He frowned at the knife as Sid spun around to face him. The red still on the blade looked daunting when paired with the man's sharp smile.

Sid gestured lazily with the kitchen knife as he next spoke, as if it were the stick he had tossed around earlier. "The deal where I do you a favor and get you home, safe 'n' sound... if you do me a favor."

Farz considered him for a moment like he really wished Sid would just turn out to be a figment of his imagination. Then, he sighed.

"What kind of favor."

The amber eyed trickster hummed as if surprised. He slid the knife into the sink and crossed back to the prep counter. "I'll be honest, Farz, I didn't expect you to break that easy." As he spoke, Sid flicked the strawberry pieces into a bowl that was already chock full of sliced fruit.

"I didn't say I'd do it," Farz clarified. "I asked what you wanted out of this." He... probably didn't have much of a choice, to be fully true, but he'd be damned if he stopped being stubborn now. Sid made every spiteful bone in his body flare up, more than anybody ever had. It was both invigorating and aggravating.

"Alright, alright, fair enough." Sid snagged the bowl and moved to the table. He yanked the back of Farz chair around to force him to fully face the table and then took the seat across from the brunet. Strawberries, cherries, and some kind of brightly colored melon glistened under the ornate ceiling lamp.

It was at that moment that Farz realized there were no actual windows in the room; just lamps and some wall lanterns to keep it well lit.

"In the end, I just need one thing from you." Sid peered at Farz through the curtain of his bright red bangs and then popped a halved cherry into his mouth. He tipped his head to the side. "I need you to get me a wolf pelt."

Farz blinked. Then blinked again.

"What?" His face contorted in confusion and revulsion. Farz had never gone out to hunt even once in his life. He mostly lived off bread, potatoes, and cheese that he made himself. Seeds and corn were also great, since he kept a lot of chickens; it was easy to share with them, then just sell eggs to buy more grain. It wasn't that he didn't like meat, it was fine, he just wasn't the guy who went out and got meat of his own accord.

A skinned wolf sounded both horrifying and impossible, at least with his skill set.

Sid clearly understood the reason for his shock in a split second. He quirked a brow, then shook his head and raised a hand as if to placate Farz. "Wh—no, no, not like that. Jesus Christ, not that." He stuck out his tongue as if disgusted with the idea, then took a bite out of a hunk of melon.

"This isn't any normal kinda pelt, fuck that. If I really needed the fur I'd just go steal it off somebody. Plenty of hunters come through here. Besides, fur is too itchy anyway." He waved a hand around as if this were all inherently obvious. "The pelt I want is magic."

Farz stared.

"Magic."

"Yeah, magic. Did I stutter?" Sid finished off the square of melon and leveled a wry look at Farz like he was an idiot. "I've got a payment to settle, you got yourself caught by a yōkai... it all works out great!"

Green eyes drilled into golden ones. Farz brows furrowed as he processed all of it. Eventually, he made a frustrated noise and let his head fall back in annoyance.

"Yōkai?"

Sid picked through the fruit to find a particularly big piece of strawberry and gave a hum of assent. "Well, people around here usually call them fae or spirits, but it's not really that different."

Farz cast a searching look at Sid, as if he wanted the other to just break into a laugh and say he'd fooled him or something. "You're not... really a fae. Those are just stories." Farz felt stuck. Like his brain wouldn't catch up. He couldn't say he didn't believe in spirits and ghosts but to see a fairy in person sounded like a stretch.

"I can't believe you didn't notice before, did you really seriously buy this?" Sid motioned to himself in disbelief and Farz eyed him warily.

"Buy what?"

"Oh. Now that's hilarious." Sid grinned.

"What is?" Farz glared at him like he'd have leapt onto the other if he weren't tied down to a chair.

"Nope, nothing, forget I said anything." Sid chuckled under his breath and spun the bowl around on the table idly. "That's not what's important. The deal is what's important." He tapped his knuckle against the table and fixed an expectant look on Farz. "So, you gonna do it?"

"No."

The apparent fae laughed. "That's cute! But, you don't really have a choice."

Farz grumbled and let his head fall forward. When he lifted it, he raised a brow at Sid and squinted. "What if I refuse to move? I could just rot here, or whatever."

Sid smirked. "Oh, buddy, you wish. Listen," he stretched and stood up as if this were all a simple conversation, "Maybe if you hadn't given me your name, that would be an option for you, but since you introduced yourself so nicely I think you'll find that you're kinda fucked."

A heavy weight dropped in Farz gut. Fairies took your name and gave you food and stole you away. He could practically hear the words of the mothers in town as they warned their children not to speak to strangers. He shut his eyes and swore.

Sid rounded the table. "Why don't we shake on it and I'll get you outta those ropes! Sound good?" The fae held out a hand and waited for his unwilling guest to take it.

Farz opened his eyes and looked at the had like he wanted to bite it. Then, he took a deep breath and averted his glare back up to Sid's face. "What if I can't get the pelt?"

"Eh, I don't think that'll be a problem," Sid shrugged, hand still stuck out, "The guy who has it should be easy to trick. He's big and dumb and has a thing for the people who wander into this forest." He grinned. "I think you'll win him over, you're cute enough."

Heat rose to Farz' cheeks and his hands balled into fists at the unexpected compliment. Green eyes swiveled back down to stare at the hand. There was no actual other option.

"Fine."

He jerked his hand against the ropes to put it in Sid's. The room went chill and a shiver ran down Farz' spine. Air couldn't get thick, but it felt like it did just that. The fae gave a wicked grin and his eyes flashed under the lamplight.

"Perfect."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you think! sorry if the chapters are a little short at first
> 
> thanks for reading!


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